FORT MYERS, Fla. – On June 12 last year, Francisco Liriano handcuffed the American League champion Texas Rangers so thoroughly, sportswriters in the Target Field press box were scrambling to find the last time a pitcher threw two no-hitters in one season.

After throwing a no-hitter May 3 at Chicago, the Twins left-hander held the Rangers hitless until Adrian Beltre’s leadoff single in the eighth.

Though Liriano gave up another hit and an earned run in what wound up being a 6-1 victory for the Twins, everyone agreed he was even better than he was against the White Sox, when he walked six and struck out two. Against the Rangers, Liriano fanned nine.

The question the Twins find themselves asking: Why doesn’t Liriano pitch that way more often? As general manager Terry Ryan said Monday, “We all know he’s got a wealth of talent and he’s got a high ceiling. He’s got pitches.”

More pitches, in fact, than he did in 2006, when he electrified the American League as a rookie, going 12-3 with a 2.16 earned-run average in 16 starts. Yet at 28, Liriano remains an enigma.

“We’ve seen him at times, and you’ve seen him at times, be unbelievable and totally locked in on the strike zone,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Sometimes he gets out of whack, and you wonder, ‘What the hell are we doing?’ That’s Frankie.”

So what will the Twins get in 2012? Though at times dominating last season, he finished his fifth major league season with a 9-10 record and a 5.09 earned-run average, a performance made more disappointing by numbers he put up on 2010: 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA in a career-high 191-1/3 innings.

Pitching coach Rick Anderson said the answer is simple, and Liriano hit on it Monday after throwing his first bullpen session of the spring.

“I just worked on my mechanics, staying tall, not getting too low,” he said.

Precisely, Anderson said. It’s not about pitching to contact. It’s not about sacrificing strikeouts. It’s about remaining upright, or “tall,” in his windup.

“If he stays tall from the start of his delivery, so he’s throwing downhill, he’s great,” Anderson said. “And he’ll be the first one to tell you, when he collapses, that forces him to jump out. I mean, there are times he’s running to third base before he’s throwing the ball, and that’s because he’s collapsing and getting out so far.”

Liriano has a violent delivery, Anderson said. That’s fine. But when he bends his knees and arches his back, he throws his shoulder out too far and falls back, making it physically impossible to raise his pitching arm high enough to “throw downhill.” That, Anderson added, will help the slider drop and the fastball and changeup find their spots.

“He made a comment last year, ‘I’m trying to pitch their way, and I can’t; I have to do it my way.’ You remember that?” Anderson said. “It’s not my way. I said, ‘Frankie, you’re violent, it’s the way you are. I don’t care. You’re a strikeout pitcher. I don’t care. My way is just getting you under control where you’re throwing it downhill.’

“My way is to throwing it straight up and still being aggressive; I don’t give a darn. I said, ‘That’s you. I’m not going to make you Kevin Slowey.’ ”

Ryan said he and his staff spent a lot of time talking about Liriano this winter, much of which no doubt revolved around what to do with him this season. Acquired with Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser in the deal that sent A.J. Pierzynski to San Francisco in 2004, Liriano has experienced just about everything in his short career; he has battled serious (elbow) and nagging (shoulder) injuries, been astonishingly good (2006) and astonishingly bad (in five of his starts last season he failed to pitch into the fifth inning).

The sides avoided arbitration and agreed on a one-year, $5.5 million contract in January, making him an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Asked what he wants to see from Liriano, Ryan said: “We want starts, we want innings, we want depth into the game.”

As for his impending free agency, Liriano said: “I don’t want to think about it. I’m just happy to be here. I just want to pitch, and whatever happens, happens.”

With two good seasons (2006, 2010) and two bad ones (2009, 2011) under his belt, Liriano appears ready to tip the scales in one direction or the other, with his future – and that of his club – directly on the line. Of all the Twins’ starters, only Liriano has the stuff to be what Anderson calls “a top-of-the-line type pitcher.”

“It’s just a matter of him putting it together,” he added.

Is this the year? At this time last year, Liriano was missing his first bullpen session because of a shoulder issue that lingered all season.

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